Instead of approaching the state’s GOP faithful with rousing accolades for the Republican Party, the 33-year-old Grand Junction resident is taking a more critical approach to his party’s direction during the last 10 years and, not surprisingly, the people who were at its helm during the time.

William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group and chairman and publisher of The Denver Post, was this year’s recipient of the Mizel Museum’s Community Cultural Enrichment Award. His family and more than 1,800 friends from media, politics, business and the arts gathered to honor Singleton at a gala dinner on May 14.

Hank Brown — former United States senator, president of two of the state’s flagship universities and former president of the Daniels Fund — received the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award for community service this week.

Bill Owens, Colorado’s 40th governor, officially left office at the beginning of 2007 after term limits prohibited him from running for a third term. But the popular Republican officeholder, who defeated his last Democratic opponent, Rollie Heath, by the greatest majority in Colorado history, still remains in the spotlight.

Coming fresh off the release of his new book and time spent on his 1,300-acre ranch in Jackson County, the former congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate said in a wide-ranging Q&A with The Colorado Statesman that he has his eye on many opportunities.

In January, the University of Denver Strategic Issues Program will convene its fourth nonpartisan panel of citizens to examine an issue of long-term importance to the people of Colorado. In the past they’ve tackled Colorado’s fiscal issues, water rights, and, most recently, conflicts in Colorado’s Constitution.

Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, 59, jumped back into the world inside the Beltway last fall after a long hiatus from national politics.

Peña spent most of the ’90s as a member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. Contrary to expectations, however, Peña didn’t align himself with the wife of his former mentor, choosing to endorse Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.